Pool Leak Detection and Repair in Frisco and Collin County
Leak detection visit $350, repair quoted after the locate
A pool losing more than a quarter inch a day over what the bucket loses is leaking, not evaporating, and the leak detection visit is $350 with the dye tests, the pressure test and a written report included. The cost of ignoring it starts with the water bill from your city water utility and the chemicals that leave with every gallon. Then it moves underground, where a steady wash of water hollows out the base under the deck and the shell. By the time the deck settles or a skimmer separates, the repair has gone from hundreds to thousands.
Start with the bucket test
Before you call, do the bucket test: a bucket of pool water on the top step, both water lines marked, auto-fill off, checked after 24 hours. It costs nothing and tells us two things: whether there is a leak, and roughly how big it is. Then run one more test. Fill the pool to the normal line, run the pump 24 hours and mark the level. Leave the pump off for the next 24 hours and mark again. A bigger loss with the pump on points to the pressure side. A bigger loss with it off points to the suction side or the shell. Equal loss both ways usually means the shell or a fitting.
What the leak visit covers
The tech works from the cheap tests to the expensive ones.
- Equipment pad. Dripping unions, a weeping shaft seal or a filter drain plug can lose more than you think and are the easiest fix.
- Dye test. With the pump off and the water still, the tech releases dye at every fitting, the light niche, the skimmer throat and any crack. Dye getting pulled in marks the leak.
- Pressure test. Each line is plugged and pressurized separately. A line that will not hold pressure has the leak.
- Listening. On a failed line, electronic listening equipment pinpoints the break to within a foot or two. The deck is opened only where it needs to be.
You get a written finding with the location, the method and the repair price before anything is cut or dug.
Common repairs in Frisco
Skimmer-to-shell gaps are sealed with pool-grade epoxy, or the skimmer is replaced. Light niche conduits are sealed from inside. Cracked return fittings are cut out and replaced. A broken underground line is exposed at the pinpointed spot, repaired, and the deck patched. Shell cracks are routed, injected and sealed. Most fitting and skimmer repairs are done the same day as the locate.
Why leaks are common here
Collin County sits on Blackland Prairie clay, deep clayey soil over marl and chalk that swells after spring rain and shrinks hard in August drought, so decks heave, skimmers separate from the shell and underground lines crack at the fittings as the ground moves under them. Every one of those movements works on the joint between the skimmer and the shell, the light niche and the fittings, which is why those are the first places the dye goes.
Pricing
The leak detection visit is $350 and includes the dye and pressure tests and the written report. Repairs are quoted after the locate. Same-day fitting and skimmer repairs are flat-rate. Underground line repairs depend on the deck material and the depth.
Call (972) 640-4665 to schedule leak detection in Frisco and across Collin County. Shut the auto-fill off tonight and start the bucket test so the tech has numbers to work with.